There were 33.9 million online dating users in the US in 2018 (). Dating apps and websites are the norm these days for both young and old people. If you have met someone online and are looking to find out a little bit more about them, here are some tips for knowing more about that person.
Check their public records
Records, including criminal record, of that person it’s definitely something worth considering, especially if you’re thinking of taking the relationship beyond online. While having a criminal record may not a big issue in some cases, knowing about the reasons for the criminal record is useful.
These days, searching for a complete profile of a person has become easier thanks to people search sites like . These sites collect data from various sources and can tell you about public records, contact details, associates, and neighbors of that person.
Check their social media
Many dating sites are connected to the social media account of the user. Check the profile of that person on social media. If their dating profile is not connected to account, you can ask them about their social media profile. Of course, the idea is not to stock the person but just find out more about them.
Social media sites are a good place to start because it’s where you’re likely to find other people who know that person as well. It’s totally reasonable to see the recent posts of that percent to make sure that they are not in a relationship with someone else.
Besides their relationship status, you can also find a lot of other information about someone on their social profiles. You can learn about what type of work they do. Doing a quick search on LinkedIn will give you an overview of their education and work history.
Having something in common is often a good talking point, but it’s also something that can be important in the long run. The follows, groups, and posts of that person will tell about their position on different matters, and the profile itself may tell you about their hobbies and interests. After all, you don’t want to be in a situation where you don’t have anything in common and have nothing interesting to talk about on your first date with them.
Social media can also help you understand if there is a difference between the person who talks to you and their real personality. At the same time, you can also check if the photo or picture they have on their dating profile is their real picture or a random picture from the internet. Catfishing is a real possibility online. There are many news items and TV shows about it, where someone is in love with a person they have met online who turns out to be fake.
Use the standard search engine differently
Besides the standard search that we do on Google, the search engine has many other search options. For example, with the Google image search option, you can find websites where the image you’ll provide has been used. To search, you can enter a URL or upload the image to find where the image has been used. This is a quick way to find other profiles of that person and see if the image is there’s or some generic image taken from a stock photos website.
Another thing you can try is to put parentheses around the name of the person when you search. For example, if you’re searching for a person by their first and last name, searching without parenthesis will give you results containing at least one of the search terms. By entering “first name last name” instead of first name last name, you first see the results that contain the two names in the order you have entered them.
Interpreting Results
What you find on social media and people search engines will get you a picture of the person but it may not be a complete picture or an up to date picture, so keep things in context when making judgments. For example, if the friends of that person think that he is careless with money, maybe he is just careless compared to them.
What happens if you don’t find anything about someone online? This is a tricky situation because it may mean that they have gotten it removed – yes, there are companies who remove information – or they are just making up everything and are someone completely different in reality. If you are not comfortable with what you find or don’t find anything at all, make sure you verify that that person is real.
In Conclusion
Online dating has made it so much convenient to meet new people. But you have to be cautious and not move too quickly. Fortunately, there are many ways you can find information about people online without the awkwardness of them knowing that you are doing so. So, it only makes sense that you do a little bit of research to be sure that you’re not wasting your time.
Take the time to find what’s available about them publicly. Enter their info in a person search engine and Google. Check their social media profiles connected to their account. Know who you are talking to so you can build a relationship based on truth.